GENERAL ELECTION.
The result of the elections crushed the present hopes of the Whigs. Instead of increasing either their numbers or their radical accomplices, it brought an addition of more than one hundred members to the Conservatives, exclusive of those whig reformers, such as Lord Stanley, who refused to identify themselves with the whig opposition in its present character and conduct, and of those among the Radicals, as Mr. Cobbett, who would not consent to be used merely as instruments for lifting men into power who would not manfully adopt any one of their opinions, and yet boasted their alliance as being engaged in a common cause. It must be confessed, however, that the Conservatives placed their all on this cast of the die. The Carlton Club dispersed its agents far and wide throughout the country, and every engine which aristocratic wealth and ecclesiastical influence could put in motion was employed in their cause. In the counties, the fifty-pound clause operated greatly to their advantage, and success generally attended their efforts; but in towns the opposite party were more successful. In Scotland there were some changes, but the comparative strength of parties remained there nearly the same as before; but in Ireland the retinue of the popish agitator was somewhat diminished, although the popish priests exerted themselves to the utmost in his favour. As for O’Connell himself, together with his coadjutors, he practised every form of violence and intimidation against every candidate who would not join in his cry for repeal, vote by ballot, short parliaments, and extension of the suffrage. Thus the Knight of Kerry, who started as a candidate for his native county, and who had spent his whole life in resisting Orangemen, because he refused to become an instrument in the hands of the popish priesthood and their agitator, was denounced as unworthy of being elected; every man who dared to vote for him was to have a death’s-head and cross-bones painted on his door: and the consequence was that he was rejected. Of a candidate for New Ross, who refused to enlist under his banner, O’Connell said, “Whoever shall support him, his shop shall be deserted; no man shall pass his threshold. Put up his name as a traitor to Ireland; let no man deal with him; let no woman speak to him; let the children laugh him to scorn.” Mr. Shiel likewise opposed a candidate for the county of Clonmel in the following words: “If any Catholic should vote for him, I will supplicate the throne of the Almighty that he may be shown mercy in the next world; but I ask no mercy for him in this.” Yet this unconstitutional line of conduct was not always successful, and even O’Connell himself, with Mr. Ruthven his colleague, found it difficult to obtain their return for the city of Dublin. The final result of the elections secured to the ministry a decided majority, in so far as England was concerned.